Indonesia Solar Eclipse

      Maupora Island, Indonesia

      SI
      Special Interest Tours
      • Email address verified
      47 reviews
      Apr 13 - 25, 2023
      Group size: 15 - 36
      Indonesia Solar Eclipse
      Maupora Island, Indonesia

      Special Interest Tours
      • Email address verified
      47 reviews

      Apr 13 - 25, 2023
      Group size: 15 - 36

      About this trip

      Join Special Interest Tours, astronomer Bob Berman and SeaTrek Sailing Adventures on a nautical expedition like never before, as we sail out over the eastern seas of Indonesia to witness a total solar eclipse in the remote southern reaches of Indonesia’s Banda Sea. Travel aboard a small armada of traditional, wooden, pinisi liveaboard boats, handcrafted on the islands of Borneo and Sulawesi by local craftsmen using ancient techniques handed down from father to son over many centuries.


      In addition to chasing one of the most profound of all nature’s celestial wonders, you will see and

      experience some of the very best culture, nature and landscapes that Indonesia has to offer, including snorkeling some of the world’s most beautiful coral reefs. This truly is a once in a lifetime opportunity.

      A note from Bob about the eclipse

      A Very Unusual Eclipse

      The totality of April 20, 2023 occurs when the Moon is closer to the far side than its near side (perigee) of its orbit, and when the Sun itself is about as distant from Earth as it ever gets. As a result, accurate instrumentation would show that the Moon and Sun are both smaller-looking than average, with both possessing very nearly the same angular size. The bizarre consequence is that if you can go to a place on Earth that is closer to the Moon – meaning, a spot where the Moon is highest-up in the sky so that your location is directly beneath it – it will then appear just large enough to completely block out the Sun and deliver all the legendary phenomena of a full total solar eclipse.

       So that old realtor maxim of “Location, location, location!” is truer during this eclipse than during any other of our lives to date. This time around, the Moon’s umbral shadow is just 34 miles (49 km) wide at its maximum! Well, we’ve previously been through such headache-producing planning agonies, and are happy to say we’ve happily found a perfect place to view this historic event -- a small, lovely, sandy-beach, undeveloped island that sits right on the centerline of this challenging eclipse.

       We will take you to a place where the length of totality, one minute, 16 seconds, will not be exceeded anywhere else on Earth by even as much as a single second!

       From our location within sight of a somewhat larger island, we will have privacy, quiet, and a Sun that will hover just 24 degrees from directly overhead. This matters because tropical locations such as this can easily suffer passing clouds, (with this region experiencing an average of 2/3 cloud cover at this time of year), so that the most effective way of avoiding them is by observing an object very high in the sky, where the sideways components of cumulous clouds are essentially eliminated.

       For those who wish to possess all the geeky specifications of this event and our location, we will be at latitude -7°, 35 m, 25s and east longitude 127°, 34’, 7” at sea-level, and with the time of maximum totality at 04:24 UT. The path width at our location is 49.2 km, the Sun/Moon altitude will be 66.3° alt, with their azimuth lying within one degree of 323.7°, meaning the Sun will be very high in the northwest. Our distance from the exact center line will be only 18 minutes of arc in declination and 4 minutes of arc in longitude. You could walk to the precise centerline in less than 20 minutes!

       Finally, the ratio of the Sun’s diameter to the Moon’s will be a mere 1.0131 at our location. This near-identical size aspect will likely produce viewings of the famed “Bailey’s Beads,” effect, among the fascinating aspects we’ll certainly talk about during the lectures scheduled for the days before the main event.

       We look forward to see you there with us!

      What’s included

      • 2 Nights Accommodation
        Nusa Dua Sofitel Hotel
      • 10 Nights Accommodation
        Pinisi Liveaboard Boat
      • Bali-Maumere Airfare
        Roundtrip
      • Solar Eclipse Day
        Private Island Accommodation
      • Astronomy Lecture
        With Bob Berman
      • 2 Days Sightseeing Bali
      • 11 Breakfasts
      • 11 Lunches
      • 11 Dinners

      What’s not included

      • International Airfare
        We can help assist with travel arrangements
      • Personal Items
      • Additonal Meals
        Meals not included above
      • Additional alcohol
        Drinks are included while on the liveaboard
      • Travel Insurance
        Is available for Purchase

      Available Packages

      Single Occupancy

      Upon request, when available we can match single travelers to room together.

      $27,110
      Deposit: $4,000
      Double Occupancy
      $16,450
      Deposit: $2,000


      Itinerary

      Total Solar Eclipse 2023
      Total Solar Eclipse 2023

      Join Special Interest Tours, astronomer Bob Berman and SeaTrek Sailing Adventures on a nautical expedition like never before, as we sail out over the eastern seas of Indonesia to witness a total solar eclipse in the remote southern reaches of Indonesia’s Banda Sea. Travel aboard a small armada of traditional, wooden, pinisi liveaboard boats, handcrafted on the islands of Borneo and Sulawesi by local craftsmen using ancient

      techniques handed down from father to son over many centuries.

      Your Organizer


      SI
      Special Interest Tours
      47 reviews
      Joined in June 2021
      See profile

      Reviews

      We had a great trip! We saw a lot, learned a lot and made new and interesting friends. As we've come to expect with Special Interest Tours, everything exceeded our expectations. Our hosts graciously and attentively cared for all of us, and once again created many wonderful memories for us. What more could one ask!! Thank you!
      By Lynn D for Group 1 -2024 Total Solar Eclipse in Texas, with Astronomer Bob Berman on Apr 20, 2024
      We had a great time.
      By James M for Group 1 -2024 Total Solar Eclipse in Texas, with Astronomer Bob Berman on Apr 20, 2024
      Well done! We had a great trip. Thank you!
      By James P for Group 2 - 2024 Total Solar Eclipse in Texas, w/ Astronomer Bob Berman on Apr 19, 2024
      Thank you Anjali, Sam, Julia and Andres for all your hard work. The private tours of the space center, River walk boat, and the Alamo were great venues, and even though we all would have enjoyed a longer totality, the entire package with a nice group of people made for a very enjoyable trip. See you on the next one!
      By Paul Z for Group 1 -2024 Total Solar Eclipse in Texas, with Astronomer Bob Berman on Apr 19, 2024
      The overall structure of the trip was excellent. We enjoyed the venues, special tours and various stops. Having said that, the actual organization of the trip was poor and chaotic and times. We recognize weather and other unforeseen events always happen, but that is not an excuse for keeping the folks in Group 2 informed which was not the case. The guide on our bus is a nice person but he had little useful information - he was more of a "babysitter" than anything else. He had to wait for somebody from the first bus to come on board and inform us of the up to date schedule and then that was not always clear. Cell phone communication usually works even in Texas. Having to deal with our own luggage to and from buses was a pain. I don't usually go on tours, but the ones I do always have folks from the hotel load and unload luggage from the buses. I know there was complexity related to having two buses that is easy to deal with. Give everybody tags attached to their bags where they write Group 1 or Group 2 to make sure that the right bags get into the right bus. And, then folks can take a look and confirm their bags are loaded if they want to double check. This is just one example on how to improve the. operational/detail aspects of the tour. The venue at the eclipse site (we did not stay there) was poorly run, disorganized and did not seem to know how to handle a medium size group such as ours. Again, the various guides on the trip were slow to step in and make sure things worked as promised. You know there is a problem when you can't even get a cup of coffee. You need additional professional help to better run your tours. Sometimes the small details can make the difference between a good trip and a bad trip. Having said all that, I will again note we enjoyed the trip and thought that having Bob Berman and the Hubbell's as part of the tour was a real positive., and we are considering the 2025 Chile trip. My last word is that if you want sophisticated clients you need to be operationally more sophisticated and professional which seemed not to be the case for this trip.
      By Michael D for Group 2 - 2024 Total Solar Eclipse in Texas, w/ Astronomer Bob Berman on Apr 19, 2024
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